Thijs Lijster [NL]

Conversation #6: over de grote vlucht inwaarts

01.04.2019

→ In this series of evening discussions, leading authors, intellectuals and philosophers debate the concept of authenticity.

According to Dutch philosopher Thijs Lijster, in today’s complex world, we increasingly think of society as an ‘outside world’. Because we have no control over it, we turn our gaze inwards. The result? Collective narcissism, the ‘Ikeafication’ of society, and the tendency to evaluate acerbic opinion more highly than thoughtful and balanced judgement. In his collection of essays, Lijster calls this ‘the great flight inward’, and he argues that it is a strategy that is doomed to fail. Against the idea that history is something which happens to us, he champions the collective ability to make history.

Moderator: Wannes Gyselinck

• Thijs Lijster is a philosopher and lecturer. The essay collection The Great Flight Inward. Essays on Culture in an Unsurveyable World was published in 2016. A sequel to the book will be published in the spring of 2019.

presented by Kaaitheater & deBuren

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